Bombshell
by theopshop
Summary: Moxxi is no stranger to relationships, and her ability to manipulate men and women alike knows no bounds - almost. But this time, she might have bitten off more than she can chew. A shortish story describing Moxxi's relationship with Jack, and the betrayals that followed. Spoilers for Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel. Violence and adult themes.
1. Heartbreaker

_**Author's note on canon:** I accept that the events of this story probably don't match the canon exactly. But the canon of the relationship between Moxxi and Jack is very difficult to pin down exactly – there is some confusion between the little revealed in Borderlands 2 and the rather more detailed depiction in the Pre-Sequel. If anyone is able to illuminate me on what the canon actually is, please do – I'd love to know._

* * *

 **1 – Heartbreaker**

 _I don't want to set the world on fire…_

 _(Timeline: Atlas has fallen, Hyperion has begun to take their place. Probably a few months after the death of General Knoxx, so possibly up to six months after the opening of the Vault.)_

* * *

Moving the Red Light from out in the Deep Fathoms into T-Bone Junction had certainly been a worthwile investment, if Moxxi did say so herself. Out there, business was not exactly good – her customers consisted primarily of bandits, who had learnt better than to attack her but still came in to gawk at her cleavage. Here, she did much better business.

Tonight was a relatively slow night, for a Friday, probably because of the rain. Moxxi didn't mind too much – it was better than a crowd of drunken, wolf-whistling men. Nobody was bothering her at the moment; the one rude customer had long since fallen asleep at the far end of the bar.

The door opened and a man stepped inside, shaking down his umbrella outside the door. Moxxi's eye was drawn to him immediately – he was tall and slender, and had quite striking features. After putting his umbrella down, he strode over to the bar and sat down. Close up, Moxxi noted, he looked quite tired; his face was lined and there were bags under his eyes, which Moxxi also saw did not match – his right eye was blue, while his left was green.

"What's your poison, sugar?"

"Whiskey and soda," replied the man, sounding as tired as he looked. Moxxi mixed his drink and placed it down on the counter. He picked it up gratefully and passed a ten-dollar note over the counter.

"Long week, huh?" Moxxi rummaged in the till for some change and passed it back over the counter.

"Yeah," muttered the man into his drink. "Crazy. Had no idea building a space station was this hard."

Moxxi raised her eyebrows. "You're Hyperion?"

"Well, that's not my name," replied the man with a wry smile. "But I work for Hyperion, yeah."

"And what is your name, sugar?"

"Call me Jack. And you must be Moxxi, of the Underdome fame."

Moxxi was genuinely surprised by this. "I didn't realise word of the Underdome had spread as far as the moon."

"Really? You're missing out on a big marketing opportunity there. Big market to expand into, up on Elpis."

"You a big-shot marketing man, then?"

"Nah. Software engineer. But you don't need to be in marketing to see it – people love the Underdome. They love you."

"I know," said Moxxi sultrily. Jack winked; Moxxi had to stop herself from giggling.

"So they need software engineers to help build a space station, do they?"

"Well, no," replied Jack. "I've been put in charge of supervising the construction… for my sins."

"Ooh, a sinful man," smirked Moxxi. "What were your sins, exactly?"

"Er… proposing the project," admitted Jack, slightly sheepishly. "The CEO thinks it's a waste of time, but the board disagreed… He basically told me that if that's the way it was going to be, I could manage the project myself."

"So, mister big-shot project manager," Moxxi continued, "what brings you to our little town? Drinks no good up there?"

"The booze is fine, but the conversation is much better down here," replied Jack with another wink. "And sometimes you just need a change of pace, you know?" He drained the rest of his drink. "That was good whiskey, mind. Not Hyperion, is it?"

"Nope. Finest quality Maliwan."

"Hm. Well, credit where it's due – the war hippies make some good alcohol, anyway."

Moxxi drummed her fingers on the holster of her revolver, Rubi. She, personally, thought Maliwan had the right idea – making combat sexy. She didn't say this, though.

"Refill, sugar?"

"Won't say no," replied Jack, sliding his glass back over the counter. Moxxi refilled it. Jack reached for his pocket, but Moxxi waved him away.

"On the house. Cause I like you."

"Oh, I couldn't do that," said Jack, feigning outrage.

"I insist," replied Moxxi, smiling slightly.

"Well, at least have one yourself."

"Not right now, sugar. Maybe later. Tell you what – you can owe me a drink in return."

"Sounds good to me," said Jack, raising his glass in a small toast. This time, Moxxi let herself giggle.

* * *

Three days later, the weekly Monday free-for-all was over. Plenty of bandits lay dead, and the crowd had flowed out of the stands and was slowly dissipating from the lobby. Moxxi surveyed the carnage strewn around the arena with a satisfied smile, then slid down to the ground and made her way inside.

The remaining crowd clapped and cheered as Moxxi entered the lobby. She smiled and waved and blew kisses as she made her way carefully to the back room, closing the door tightly behind her.

Hearing the door close, the man inside the back room looked up. He was tall and thin, with a small pointed beard, a short ponytail and a pair of goggles on his head. A large bird sat on his shoulder, and a large sniper rifle lay on the table in front of him. He stood up as Moxxi approached.

"Hi, sweetie," said Mordecai. "Good day today, wasn't it?"

"Yep. Looked like I gave you a bit of a workout down there, sugar," replied Moxxi, smirking slightly.

"Nothin' I can't handle," replied the hunter, scratching Bloodwing's head absently. "So what's up?"

"Well, I thought you might like to know; I found myself a new toy a few days ago."

Mordecai hesitated. All the signs so far were pointing to this not being a good thing. His eyes narrowed slightly.

"When you say 'toy' -"

"I know what you're thinking, sugar, and don't worry – I never sleep with more than one person at a time."

Mordecai relaxed. "Oh, well that's a -"

"Which is why I'm afraid I'm going to have to cut you loose."

The hunter blinked. "What?"

"You're no fun, Mordecai." (Mordecai registered the renewed use of his name rather than 'sugar'.) "You're always tending to your guns, or your bird, or off killing things for Roland. You never seem to have time for me any more."

"Woah, woah, woah," said Mordecai sharply. "I won your tournament – I thought -"

"You thought wrong."

"Well, what about your pistol? I found that, didn't I? You wouldn't have that if it weren't for me!"

"True, and I'm awful grateful to you for bringing Rubi back to me. But that doesn't change anything. Besides, you hardly went looking for her – you just happened to stumble across her."

Mordecai was running out of arguments. He paused, groping for words.

"So in short," said Moxxi, pouncing on her advantage, "you've been replaced."

"Yeah?" snapped back Mordecai, finding his voice. "By who?"

"By _whom_. Handsome, charismatic, corporate… all the things you're not." Moxxi's voice was clipped with ice as she swung her insults, but only one word seemed to register with Mordecai.

"Corporate? Hah! Hyperion, probably. That'll end in tears, you mark my words."

"Who knows? Maybe you're right. But you know me, Mordecai – whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried. And you see…" Moxxi smiled with an air of awful finality, "I've tried you."

Mordecai glared at his now-ex-girlfriend, who flashed her most winning smile back at him. Without another word, the hunter swung his sniper rifle onto his back, causing Bloodwing to squawk unhappily, and swept out the door, through the crowd, leaving a ripple of conversation in his wake, and over to the fast travel station. Moxxi watched him, still smiling, until he vanished in a flash of blue.

* * *

In the afternoon warmth of Treacher's Landing, Mordecai positioned himself carefully, the rays of the sun warming his back. His hands were still shaking slightly with rage, but his combat instincts were still working, and any fighter worth his salt knew to make your enemies face into the sun. He surveyed the area through his rifle, then took aim and fired.

The first bandit's head exploded. The others snapped to attention, drawing their weapons and firing in Mordecai's general direction. With the sun in their eyes, though, their already typically poor aim was even worse, and Mordecai's shield easily soaked up the few bullets that did find him. He pulled the trigger once, twice more. Both shots missed. He cursed, reloaded, and aimed again. This time he had more success.

It took him longer than he would have liked to clear out the small group of bandits, but no matter – he'd found what he needed. The hunter strode down past the dead bodies and grabbed the dirty brown bottles scattered on the floor.

"Rakk ale. Hmm…" He held one bottle up to the light, then flicked the top off and took a swig. "Yeah, not bad. Not bad…" He downed the rest of the bottle, collected the remaining similar bottles and drank deeply from one of them. Amongst the bottles, dead bodies and worthless assault rifles, he also found an Atlas revolver – an incredibly rare find, now that Atlas had pulled out of Pandora.

As he made his way back to the fast travel station, still angry but satisfied with his finds, two more bandits opened fire on him from the nearby watchtower. He swung his rifle back into his hands, put his eye to the scope and fired twice. Both bandits fell instantly. Mordecai chuckled.

"Well, what do ya know… I guess I am a better shot when I'm drunk."


	2. Kitten

**2 – Kitten**

 _We're all mad here._

 _(Timeline: Follows directly on from chapter one – a gap of less than a week.)_

* * *

Ever since the Corporate Wars, Hyperion had required that entrance to premises operated by the company be strictly controlled. That meant at least one guard at every entrance, and two at the main entrance – even when it was still under construction. And Helios was no exception. Being a space station, it was quite difficult to break into without being noticed, but regulations were regulations, and so the guards took it in turns to man the two main entrances – the spaceport in the Launching Station and the fast travel in the Hub of Heroism. It was, to say the least, dreary work.

The construction workers didn't work on Sundays, meaning that those days were particularly slow – the only people to come and go were the other guards, usually. Which was why the guards on duty in the Hub of Heroism were rather stunned by the arrival of a buxom woman in a revealing dress.

"What's your business here, ma'am?" asked one of the guards, trying his best to keep his eyes on the woman's face. "Helios is still closed to the public."

The woman flashed a brilliant smile, making the guard's stomach swoop. "The name's Moxxi, sugar. I'm here to see Jack."

"Oh… um…" The guard rubbed his chin, suddenly wishing he'd bothered to shave this morning. "He, uh… he did send a memo… where is it, now… Dave? Dave!"

The second guard, who had been staring blankly at the woman (though not at her face), his mouth gaping slightly, grunted sharply and snapped back to reality. "Huh?"

"Where's the memo from Jack?"

"Oh… right…" The guard called Dave shuffled the papers on the security desk around until he found the memo in question. "Here."

The first guard read it quickly. "Right… Okay, I suppose you're clear to go through, then." He cleared his throat sharply. He prided himself on his professional demeamour – contact with the public was a big part of being a security guard, and gawking at women who walked through your checkpoint was a good way to get yourself told off (or slapped) – but even he was having trouble with this woman.

"Okay… take this pass…" He handed the woman a small plastic ID card. "He says he'll meet you in his office… if he's not there… just wait for him, and he'll be there shortly. The lift straight across the terminal. If you need anything, just find a steward and ask."

"Gorgeous," said the woman, flashing him another smile. He felt his cheeks redden very slightly, and hoped she wouldn't notice. "Thanks, sugar. See you later."

The guard stood aside, and the woman swept past him, flashing Dave a swift wink as she passed before she vanished down the stairs into the central terminal. Dave flushed deep red, making him look eerily similar to a near-ripe tomato.

"Better get rid of that memo, Dave. He said to shred it once she came through. Dave? Dave!"

Dave, who had been staring after the woman, came back to reality again with a jolt. "Huh? Oh, right..."

"Honestly, man," sighed the guard as Dave took the memo over to the shredder, "this is why you're still a junior."

* * *

Moxxi was still grinning at how easily malleable the guards had been when she entered the central terminal, which promptly wiped the grin off her face and replaced it with a look of astonishment. Having lived on Pandora all her life, Moxxi was well accustomed to the slapdash buildings and towns typical of Pandora. Luxury, on the other hand, was almost completely alien to her, which was why the glittering expanse of the central terminal made her stop and stare.

The central terminal was a moderately large plaza, flanked by all manner of gleaming structures. The colour scheme was perfectly balanced – yellow was a tricky colour to work with, as it could easily be made too bright, but this had been done beautifully – and small, perfectly shaped hedges were dotted around the plaza. It was, in all, the most astonishing thing Moxxi had ever seen. She could easily imagine it bustling with corporate and consumer activity, but at the moment, it was completely deserted, and silent as the grave.

Pulling herself together, she walked down the stairs and across the terminal to the sleek glass doors that covered a spacious lift. There was a small button and scanner near the doors. Moxxi pressed the button. There was a sharp beep, splitting the silence like a thunderbolt, and then a calm female voice rang out.

"Authorisation required. Please present identification, or step into the scanner."

Moxxi hesitated, then held the plastic card the guard had given her in front of the scanner. A low buzzing noise started up abruptly, then stopped again. The glass doors slid open with a soft hiss of air.

"User authorised," said the voice. "Have a nice day."

Moxxi stepped into the lift. The doors closed behind her, and the lift began to rise smoothly. It stopped after only a few seconds, and Moxxi stepped out into a narrow corridor. It was not silent up here – the constant beeping of keypads and the occasional thumping noise as one of the office CL4P-TPs got frustrated filled the air. None of the robots paid her any attention or even acknowledged her presence as she walked past them; this didn't bother her, as she was not a massive fan of the infamous, ubiquitous Claptraps.

The corridor continued beyond the rows of desks. This section had numerous glass windows lining the walls, allowing Moxxi to see down into the bowels of the station. At the end of the corridor was a massive metal door, with another scanner on the wall next to it. She presented the ID card again, and the door slid open with as little noise as could be expected. Moxxi stepped through the door.

After the central terminal, Moxxi had been expecting something pretty lavish up here, and she was not disappointed. Two large water features dominated the room, which was high-ceilinged, well lit and mostly empty. Beyond the water features, a small flight of stairs led up to a raised platform, on which sat a large desk. Three large pictures of the Hyperion founders looked down on the room, and a small section of one side of the room housed several bookshelves and chairs. But what was inside the room was nothing compared to what was outside, and it had Moxxi enraptured.

The far wall of the room was almost entirely glass, giving a breathtaking view of the lava-stricken surface of Elpis. Moxxi had never been to the moon, and until now had not particularly wanted to, as she'd heard it wasn't all that nice. From this perspective, however, it looked dazzlingly beautiful.

"Nice, huh?"

Moxxi blinked, and her eyes refocused. Jack was striding down the stairs ahead of her, passing between the water features. He looked far less tired than when they had met in the bar at T-Bone Junction.

"Must've cost a pretty penny."

"It cost a dazzlingly beautiful penny," replied Jack, "and then some." He made a small bow and gestured towards the chair in front of his desk. Moxxi strolled up the stairs and sat down, taking in every detail of the room. Jack sat down in his chair and pulled two glasses out from under the desk.

"For obvious reasons, I've only got Hyperion whiskey," he said, producing a dusty red and black bottle that was about three-quarters full. "Hope that's okay."

"Fine by me, sugar," replied Moxxi. She took the glass Jack offered her with a smile and took a sip. It wasn't the best she'd tasted, but it was passable.

"So how's things down there?" asked Jack. "Haven't been down since last week."

"Oh, same old," said Moxxi airily. "Busy up here?"

"Ridiculously," groaned Jack. "We're already behind schedule on the inner hull, and now somebody down there's initiated yellow-grade quarantine protocols. Contagious infection," he translated, correctly interpreting Moxxi's quizzical look. "We've no idea what. We're waiting on a hazmat team to get here from HQ. Can't do anything until we work out what's going on down there."

They talked for a good hour, with their laughter getting steadily louder as the bottle of whiskey got steadily emptier. Moxxi didn't usually drink during the day, but there was something about Jack's smooth persuasive tone that put her at ease, and after several glasses it hardly mattered anyway.

"Do you know," said Moxxi, her voice quite slurred after quite a few glasses, "of my last boyfriend?" She paused, thinking over the sentence in her head, and decided it was close enough to gramatically correct.

"I don't," replied Jack, smiling. He had drunk only slightly less than Moxxi, but was only slurring very slightly.

"He's…" Moxxi gathered her senses. "He's a Vault Hunter. Opened the Vault with his friends. Killed the Dets… Dres… Derstoyer." That sounded right. "Name of M… M…" Moxxi swallowed. "Moor… dee… kai."

"Oh yes?" Jack was sober enough to partially conceal the surprise on his face, but he doubted Moxxi would have noticed even if he hadn't.

"Couldn't stand him." Moxxi leaned across the desk, putting her face quite close to Jack's. "Always lookin' after his bird… never had time for me…"

"But that's tragic," said Jack, still smiling. "How could anyone not have time for you?"

Moxxi laughed. The laugh was too loud and went on for far longer than it should have, in the typical fashion of drunk people.

"There's a secret behind this," she said, moving her hands up and down the sides of her body to indicate herself.

"Oh really?" asked Jack provocatively.

Moxxi nodded. "But it's a secret." She put a finger to her lips dramatically and blew, clearly intending to go "shhh" but only succeeding in spraying Jack with spit.

"And you wouldn't consider telling me?" Jack casually produced a pale yellow handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face.

"Hmm… maybe." Moxxi grinned seductively. "But you gotta do something for me first."

Jack raised his eyebrows, still smiling. "Such as?"

* * *

Mordecai was woken from his drunken slumber by way of being poked firmly in the ribs by Brick. He sat up groggily, rubbing his side – being poked firmly in the ribs by Brick was no laughing matter.

"What?"

"You been locked in here for almost a week, Mordy," said Brick. "You okay?"

"Huh? Oh… right. Yeah, I'm fine." Mordecai rubbed his eyes.

Brick looked around at the littany of empty rakk ale bottles on the floor. "Well, something's driven you to the drink pretty bad."

"I don't wanna talk about it, Brick."

"Well, okay. Roland's got a job for ya, but he says it can wait if you're not feeling up to it."

Mordecai stretched his legs, his joints clicking. "Nah, I'm okay. I'll go see him now."

"Okay." Brick turned to leave. "And Mordy? You might wanna ease up on the drink a bit. Never know when we might have to defend the city."

"Don't worry 'bout that, Brick," replied Mordecai, lifting his favourite sniper rifle onto his shoulder. "I'm an even better shot when I'm drunk, you know."

* * *

Moxxi was suffering pretty badly from the aftereffects of the booze. She couldn't remember all of the events of the day before, but she knew she'd enjoyed herself.

Groaning, she dragged herself to her feet and staggered into the bathroom. Splashing water on her face, she looked out the window. The ragged form of Helios glittered above her as ever, mocking her with its beauty. She looked away, cringing – she hoped she hadn't let it slip to Jack, but the beauty of the station had disconcerted her more than she cared to admit.

After she'd finished washing, she carefully applied her makeup, covering the bags under her eyes, and went downstairs to make herself a cup of coffee. She could hear a few people over in the lobby, talking and laughing, but the first show wasn't due to start for another hour yet, so she had plenty of time.

When Moxxi entered the kitchen, she found a small surprise. Sitting on the bench was a small red and black tin. Moxxi picked the tin up gingerly and smelt the contents – she was no expert, but this smelt like very good quality coffee.

Under the tin was a small note, written in a neat but hasty cursive script. Moxxi read it quickly, and a slight grin spread over her face despite her headache.

 _Hyperion's finest. Thought you might need it. J._


	3. Pulse

**3 – Pulse**

 _Why not turn me on?_

 _(Timeline: Set during the events of the Pre-Sequel. I'm placing this nine months to a year after chapter one, so between fifteen and eighteen months after the opening of the Vault. This had to be long enough after chapter one for Moxxi and Jack's relationship to actually take place, break up, and cool off enough for Moxxi to agree to help Jack, but still prior to the two-year anniversary of the Vault's opening, which we know is approximately when the fall of New Haven occurred (which obviously has to be after all this).)_

* * *

If there was one thing Moxxi prided herself on (other than commentating, robotics and looking sexy), it was her ability to know a good business opportunity when she saw one. The second she'd set foot in Concordia, she knew she was onto a good thing. The town was as decently hospitable as could be expected, but it was boring. Quiet. Dingy. It needed somewhere lively. Fun. And that was where she came in.

Of course, all that was six months ago. It was Jack who had brought her up to Concordia, introduced her to the local mayor – or "meriff", as he called himself – and helped her set up the bar. Now they'd broken up, but the Up Over was doing better trade than ever.

A few days ago, Moxxi had gotten a small but pleasant surprise – Roland and Lilith had arrived unexpectedly in the bar. They had explained to her that they were pretending to be on a romantic trip together (which was not completely false, according to Lilith) but were in fact here to keep an eye on Hyperion, who they didn't trust. They'd been spending much of their time in the bar since they arrived, typically on the dance floor, where Lilith would exhibit her skills in dancing and Roland would exhibit his skills in standing quietly by the wall making people forget he was there.

Today was a fairly busy day, with quite a few people other than Roland and Lilith drifting around, drinking and snacking. It was days like this that had led Moxxi to try and hire some cheap help – nobody seemed interested, so she made the help herself, buying some robot components and an old CL4P-TP chassis from a local junk dealer. She must have made a mistake while wiring its motherboard up, however, because far from the eager-to-help personality shared by most Hyperion standard CL4P-TPs, this one would do everything it could to avoid working, including poorly disguising itself as a regular customer. This typically meant that when Moxxi went for a break, her customers got steadily more and more irritated as the service was delayed longer and longer.

Just past midday, Moxxi finished soldering some wires back into a second prototype bar service robot, stretched her back and removed her overalls. Hurriedly fixing her makeup, she grabbed the discarded tray from the sideboard and strode back into the bar.

At the door, she paused. There was an unusual group standing on the dance floor, talking to Roland and Lilith. Moxxi spotted a tall, muscular woman with short dark hair, who she recognised immediately as Athena, who she had helped escape from General Knoxx. The other three were not familiar to her – there was a slender woman with a broad-brimmed hat pulled low over her eyes, a skull-motif shirt and ragged skin-tight jeans; there was a well-built man with a small beard and one cybernetic eye; and there was the most unusual CL4P-TP unit she'd ever seen. They turned to face her as she strolled over to stand behind the bar, and walked down to meet her.

"Hello, Moxxi," said Athena, in her low, calm voice.

"Hey Athena," replied Moxxi. "Haven't seen you since all that business with Knoxx. Been keeping busy?"

"Trying," replied Athena. "We need your help."

"Oh? Introduce me, why don't you?"

Athena sighed almost imperceptibly, then gestured to the tall woman. "This is Nisha…"

The woman called Nisha nodded curtly, clearly sizing Moxxi up.

Athena gestured to the muscular man. "Wilhelm…"

"Enforcer from Hera, right?" said Moxxi, who knew the name. "Charmed." She offered her hand. Wilhelm grunted and clasped her hand briefly.

"And…" Athena sighed again, before gesturing to the CL4P-TP unit. "Fragtrap."

"Hello, Moxxi!" said Fragtrap, raising one arm enthusiastically. "I am an experimental prototype known as FR4G-"

"Cool," interrupted Moxxi, turning back to Athena. "So what's up?"

"We work for Jack," said Athena. "He sent us to find you… thinks you might be able to help us out."

Moxxi smiled widely. "Ah… Jack sent you, huh? Oh, that must have bothered the poor dear something awful."

"Yes…" said Nisha, not taking her eyes off Moxxi. "He must be desperate."

Moxxi raised her eyebrows at Nisha. Nisha made no comment, but a mocking smile tweaked at her lips very slightly.

"No worries," said Moxxi to Athena, though she continued to keep one eye on Nisha, "it's all in the past. So what do you need?"

"Dahl soldiers took over Helios," replied Athena. "There's a jamming signal somewhere around here messing with its defences. Can you help us pinpoint it?"

"Sure. Easy enough. You'll need to put transmitters on the ECHO towers around town. Little bit of simple triangulation. Head down to the black market and pick up some transmitters I ordered a while ago."

Jack's Vault Hunters left by the back door, heading in the direction of the black market. Moxxi caught Roland's eye and jerked her head. Roland, getting the message, caught Lilith's arm and they came down to the bar.

"Did they want you to help them find this signal as well?"

"Yeah," replied Roland. "But we told them we're not Vault Hunting any more."

"I don't like this at all," said Lilith. "What's going on up there?"

"Nothing good, I'm sure," muttered Moxxi.

* * *

About an hour later, Moxxi was in her workshop continuing to solder her prototype together, when there was a small cough behind her.

"Um… Moxxi?"

Moxxi very nearly dropped the soldering iron on her foot as she spun around to see Athena in the doorway, flanked by Nisha, Wilhelm and Fragtrap.

"Hey! What're you -" Moxxi cleared her throat and summoned her sophisticated accent to mask the Hodunk drawl of which she was eternally ashamed. "What are you doing in here?"

"Wow!" exclaimed Fragtrap. "You look different – and you're covered in robot blood!"

Moxxi looked down at her overalls, which were indeed stained with oil.

"Dammit," she snarled, and Fragtrap recoiled slightly, "I really don't like people seeing me out of character. What the hell do you want?"

"Meriff locked down the town," growled Wilhelm, who didn't seem even remotely interested in Moxxi's transformed appearance. "We need to get out."

Moxxi glared at the Vault Hunters. "I know a way out. But I won't show it to you unless you promise not to tell anyone what you saw here."

Nisha raised her right hand. "We hereby promise not to tell anyone that the slutty clown is also a slutty mechanic," she said dryly, unable (or perhaps unwilling) to conceal her smirk. "Are we good?"

Moxxi summoned a smile. "Great," she said casually. "Cause if you spilled, my son would have to bury you alive in a shallow grave."

Moxxi turned to the stairs leading down into her basement. She distinctly heard Nisha snicker, followed by Athena hissing "Shut up!" under her breath.

* * *

After showing Jack's Vault Hunters out of the city, Moxxi returned to her workshop and straightened out her thoughts and nerves. She also made a mental note to adjust the B4R-BOT's memory – it could only have been him who told them how to get into the back room.

Moxxi fixed her makeup and clothing, let her hair down and returned to the bar. There was a reasonably large queue of customers, as she had expected, and the B4R-BOT was drifting around on the dance floor. Roland and Lilith were on the dance floor as well. Moxxi pulled more glasses out from under the bar and quickly started to pour drinks for the thirsty Concordians.

Several minutes later, the crowd had thinned, returning to their tables to nurse their drinks again. Moxxi was wiping down the bar when her ECHO communicator crackled into life.

"I'm sorry, people of Elpis," said an unknown woman over the communicator. "But this is the only way."

Moxxi frowned, and surveyed the room. Similar expressions on the faces of Roland, Lilith and the other customers told her that they had received the same message. Moxxi came out from behind the bar and met Roland and Lilith at the base of the stairs leading up to the dance floor.

"What's going on?"

"I don't -" Moxxi was cut off almost immediately as a dull crackling roar split the air and the ground shook violently. Screams sounded through the bar, and everyone who was standing up was thrown to the floor, including Moxxi, Roland and Lilith. The commotion persisted for several seconds before the quaking stopped and the roar died.

Moxxi scrambled back to her feet and helped Roland and Lilith up. Around them, the customers were picking themselves up off the floor as well – one woman appeared to have been taking a drink when the quake struck, causing the glass to empty itself over her head.

"What the hell was that?" exclaimed Lilith.

"I don't know," said Moxxi grimly, "but I think I can find out." She pulled her communicator from her belt and pressed on a name some way down her contact list.

"Jack?" she said into the communicator. "It's Moxxi. What's going on up there? The whole moon just shook!"

There was silence on the other end for several seconds before Jack's voice crackled through the line. "Yeah – not good – the Lost Legion've taken control of the Eye of Helios. It's a massive laser in the heart of the station. Looks like Zarpedon's targeting the moon's core."

"Which means?"

"Well, try not to panic… but I think she's trying to blow up Elpis."

* * *

Several hours later, Moxxi was alone in her workshop, examining the blueprints that Jack had sent her, when her ECHO sprung to life again.

"Okay, Mox," said Jack through the radio, "Zarpedon's dead and we're heading to the laser core now. I'll let you know once we're ready."

"Gorgeous," replied Moxxi, not taking her eyes off the blueprints. She wasn't going to deny it, this was a risky plan. But it was the best plan they had. She called Roland and Lilith again.

"You guys all done up there?"

"Yeah, it's all sorted," replied Lilith. "What now?"

"You'd better head back to the central terminal," said Moxxi. "Probably a good idea to be ready to make a quick getaway – if something goes wrong, you won't want to be up there."

"Understood," replied Roland. The line went dead again, and Moxxi sighed deeply. There was several seconds of silence before Jack's voice came through the line again.

"All right, Mox, we're here."

"Great. Can you get the laser core open, please?"

Moxxi heard a series of beeps coming through the line, and a hiss of air as the core opened. Moxxi, having seen the blueprints, knew exactly what was in there, but she was the only one other than Jack, and she heard the startled gasps of the Vault Hunters as the core opened.

"What the -" said Athena. "Is that…"

"The Eye of Helios, yeah," replied Jack. "I mean, it's actually the eye of the Destroyer creature who came out of the Vault… but I attached it to my laser to increase its power like tenfold. Cause I'm awesome."

"Wh – you used the Destroyer's eye as a weapon?" said Lilith, clearly shocked.

"It was a weapon already, just like all the Eridian remnants," said Jack. "I just figured out how to use it. So… how do we shut this thing down?"

"Carefully," said Moxxi slowly. "Even without the weird-ass eye, this is a highly volatile reactor. You're feeding it something to amplify its power?"

"Oh, yeah. Runoff from the Eridium refinement process. The scientists call it 'slag'."

"Okay. Now do exactly as I say… go down to the three injector panels and set them to the maximum."

Moxxi heard the Vault Hunters injecting the first and second doses of slag, then she heard a dull rumbling start up.

"Um, Mox, I only juice the eye with a little bit of slag at a time…"

"It won't hurt the eyeball, sugar."

"Yeah, but it is freaking it the hell out."

"Look, in order to safely shut this thing down and bypass any traps Zarpedon's put on the core, we have to trigger the safe mode. Forcing a whole lot of slag into the eye at once will overload it and trip a failsafe. Then we can shut it down."

The Vault Hunters injected the third dose of slag. The rumbling intensified, then died off.

"Warning," said the cool female voice of Hyperion, "power overload. Space-time instability detected. Entering protective mode."

"There you go," said Moxxi. "Now all you've gotta do is reboot normally and the laser'll be all yours."

There was a short silence. Moxxi was basically on the edge of her seat. Based on the schematics of the room, it wouldn't take them long to get up to the console, and then -

"Wait!" shouted Jack suddenly, and Moxxi jumped. "Don't press that button!"

Moxxi clenched her fist on the edge of the bench. "What's wrong?"

"If the eye starts acting up during the reboot, I'd rather not be anywhere near it."

Moxxi bit her tongue. "Thanks to the failsafes, it couldn't possibly do anything other than shut down."

"Well, better safe than sorry. Anyway, with Zarpedon dead and protective mode active, we can reboot from the command centre. Come on."

Moxxi shut off her communicator and jumped to her feet, cursing. This was not the plan – things were about to turn very bad. She started grabbing all of her most important possessions from the bar and throwing them into her case – she was going to need to make a very quick getaway very shortly.

She opened her communicator again, listening to the events up on Helios while still hastily packing. She could easily come back in a month or so to get anything else, anyway.

"Reboot sequence initiated," said the voice of Hyperion. "Command control reset. Rebooting in: five. Four. Three. Two."

An alert sounded, beeping steadily in the background.

"Shutdown aborted. Invalid energy configuration."

"Oh great," said Jack, "now what?"

The ground shook violently. Moxxi had been prepared for this, and steadied herself against the bar. Grabbing her case, she darted for the door. Once outside, she looked up towards Helios. The station was still visible, but only partially. A large part of the station was obscured from view by a swirling purple vortex, with a tiny point of no colour at all in the very centre.

"Whoa!" shouted Jack. "What's the – Moxxi? What's going on?"

"I'm betraying you. Trying to kill you," replied Moxxi lightly. "Something I should have done a long time ago, you power-hungry psychopath."

"What do you -"

"I've been watching you, Jack," said Moxxi, a touch of menace in her voice. "Behind that smile, and that hero complex… there's something wrong about you. And if you come down from Helios alive… a lot of decent people are going to live to regret it."

There was a muffled crash from the vicinity of the Eye of Helios. Jack shouted, enraged, and Moxxi knew that her plan had worked – at least, partially worked. A high-pitched whining filled the air, and the singularity at the centre of the vortex turned white.

"Dammit, Moxxi," shouted Jack, "I trusted you! And now you've just killed us all!"

The whining intensified, and the pinpoint of white in the vortex seemed to expand, before the singularity collapsed with a dull boom. A flash of blinding light enveloped everything, before everything faded. Debris had spewed from the collapsed singularity in all directions, and what looked like a piece of one of the Lost Legion's fighter ships had collided with the headless statue of the Meriff, which had split into several pieces and fallen to the ground. Several splintering crashes from her communicator told Moxxi that the laser command centre had also been struck, and by the sounds of it, the shockwave had taken out most of the glass. She also heard a dull coughing, telling her that Jack was still very much alive. She closed her communicator before Jack launched into a predictable tirade, grabbed her case and sprinted for the fast travel station.

At the stairs leading down to the fast travel, she met Roland and Lilith, who had apparently left Helios in a hurry in the commotion.

"That went well," said Lilith.

"Could have gone better," replied Moxxi. "He'll be after our heads now. I'd get out of here if I was you."

"We're going after the Vault," replied Roland. "Zarpedon must have had a reason for not wanting Jack to get at it."

"Suit yourselves, but I'm getting out of here. You know where to find me – and thanks for the help."


	4. Kiss

**4 – Kiss**

 _It takes two._

 _(Timeline: Post-Claptastic Voyage. Not that long after Jack's rise to power. About a month shy of the two-year anniversary of the Vault's opening.)_

* * *

"Sir?"

"What is it, Jimmy?"

"This may interest you."

"Hmm…" Jack examined the small paper that Blake had given him. "That is interesting. Thanks, Jimmy."

* * *

Monday! On most planets throughout the galaxy, Monday was generally held as the worst day of the week. But not on Pandora. This was partly because very few people actually worked 38-hour weeks – especially not since Atlas' fall – but mostly because of the Underdome. The Monday free-for-all was the biggest event of the week, and the stands were always very full. This week, however, Roland, Lilith and Brick were on the ticket, and it was standing room only in the Angelic Ruins.

Moxxi hovered in the back room, her adrenaline bubbling, watching the crowd file into the stands. There was still several minutes until the start of the combat, but Moxxi knew that just watching the crowd enter the arena kept her buzzed. Unable to sit down, she paced for several minutes until the last of the crowd had taken their seats. She grabbed her megaphone from the table, proceeded into the deserted lobby and entered the arena.

Upon seeing her, the crowd immediately erupted into cheers. Moxxi lapped it up, smiling, waving and blowing kisses until she reached the centre of the arena. She ascended to her platform gracefully and swung around the central pole once, waving to the whole crowd with her megaphone, then placed it to her lips.

"Good afternoon, Pandora!" The crowd cheered. "We've got three great matches lined up for you today – are you excited?" Again, the crowd cheered. "And what better way to start than with those masters of the arenas, the world famous Vault Hunters themselves… Roland! Lilith! And… Brick!"

The three Vault Hunters entered the arena to the same reception as Moxxi herself – they were well-known as masterful combatants, and any match featuring even one of them was a guaranteed sell-out. All three of them was unmissable. They soaked up the cheers as they walked towards the centre of the arena (at least, Lilith and Brick did – Roland appeared to be trying (unsuccessfully) to pretend that he wasn't there), and gave Moxxi the thumbs-up when they reached the centre, which she returned.

"As ever," continued Moxxi over the cheers, "they'll be facing wave upon wave of the toughest enemies this planet has to offer, including our local friendly bandits, the remains of the notorious Crimson Lance, and, of course -"

A colossal explosion drowned out Moxxi's next words, and the entire arena shuddered. The cheers turned to screams. Moxxi had stumbled slightly, but kept a tight grasp on the pole to keep herself from falling; down below, Roland, Lilith and Brick had steadied themselves and had drawn their weapons, looking up at Moxxi questioningly. They had barely recovered when the same thing happened again, this time causing part of the arena roof to fall in.

"So I hear," said a voice through everyone's communicators, "that this is an unmissable event. I prefer to think of it as an unmissable opportunity. Don't you agree?"

There was a muffled thud from somewhere far above them all, and the building shook again. This time, the explosions kept coming, and the screams intensified as flaming rubble began to drop from the roof.

"Change of plans," shouted Moxxi, barely making herself heard over the commotion. "Everyone out!"

The crowd was a step ahead of her, and they were already halfway out by the time Moxxi slid down the pole and joined Roland, Lilith and Brick. No words passed between the four of them as they started running for the lobby, dodging flaming debris on every other step. The crowd parted for them, but only slightly, and they allowed themselves to be swept through to the exit and out into the sunlight. The crowd put a good two hundred metres between themselves and the Underdome before slowing.

Brick lowered his shoulder and started to push forward through the crowd, who knew better than to get under his feet. Moxxi, Roland and Lilith hurried along in his wake. They quickly reached the front of the crowd, stopping short as they caught sight of the Underdome.

Smoke was rising off several parts of the building, which was already mostly destroyed. Flames flickered through the shattered windows, sending sparks and embers onto the parched ground outside. Horrified, Moxxi tore her eyes from the carnage and looked up towards Helios, which continued to belch fiery mortars towards the Underdome and showed no signs of stopping. Unwilling to watch, but unable to look away, Moxxi simply stared, her eyes flickering between the smouldering ruin of the Underdome and the uncaring, unrelenting moonbase, her heart sinking lower with every mortar.

What seemed like an age later, but in reality was only a minute or so, the timbers of the Underdome gave a final, defeated groan and gave way, causing what was left of the roof to collapse. Several more mortars collided with the rubble on the ground, before the moonbase finally let up. A hushed silence fell over the crowd for several seconds, before a dull murmuring started up.

Roland nudged Lilith and nodded his head at Moxxi, who remained completely rigid, staring at the pile of rubble in front of them. Lilith nodded, and went over to Moxxi. Roland started making his way back through the crowd with the help of Brick, performing first aid where they found people injured.

Moxxi's communicator, as well as those of Roland, Lilith and Brick, flickered into life. Chuckling came through the line at the other end.

"Ah, I enjoyed that… Hey, you idiots still alive? Damn it. Oh well, there's always next time."

"Civilians are injured, Jack," said Roland, his voice astonishingly level. "That was uncalled for."

"Oh, Roland, it was totally called for," replied Jack. "You idiots just don't learn, do ya? I told those scientists, I told that idiot Huxter, and I told you – you cross me, and you won't live to regret it. You just don't listen."

Moxxi listened to this in silence, her fists clenched. Unable to control herself, she screamed, and every ounce of the white-hot fury boiling inside her tore through the air. Heads turned in the crowd, and on the other end of the communicator, Jack burst out laughing.

"Dammit, Jack," shouted Moxxi, her vision clouded with rage and barely-repressed tears, and the crowd fell silent, "I'll kill you for this!"

"You tried that once already, remember?" replied Jack, his voice turning steely. "How'd that work out for you? See, this is what happens, Moxxi. You destroyed my favourite toy, and now I've returned the favour. I don't forgive, and I sure as all hell don't forget. Anyway, if you'll excuse me, I have work to do. I'll see you idiots in a few weeks when I get around to burning New Haven to the ground."

The line went dead. Moxxi bit her lip, trembling slightly, then bent double and crouched down, struggling with herself. She felt Lilith's hand clasp her shoulder lightly, and she breathed deeply. Eventually, the battle was won, and she slowly stood up, her vision clearer. Slowly, she walked back to the ruin, her shoes sinking slightly into the ground, which had been cracked and shaken by the mortars.

The destruction was worse up close, far worse, and Moxxi had to pause and steady herself as she reached the place where the lobby had been. She heard three sets of footsteps behind her, and knew that Roland, Lilith and Brick had followed her, but she did not turn around.

She was surrounded by rubble, mostly. As she surveyed the wreckage, her eyes passed over a few things that had fully or partly survived the mortars: a piece of pole from the centre of one of the arenas, an old supply container, half of a Zed's Meds vending machine, a piece of the fast travel station. Moving forward into the remains of the back room, Moxxi found what she had been hoping had survived – her megaphone, thoroughly dented and charred, but miraculously intact. She bent down and picked it up. It was uncomfortably warm in her hand, but she hardly noticed.

She felt Roland, Lilith and Brick reach her, and the four of them stood in silence for several seconds before Roland spoke.

"Moxxi?"

Moxxi turned slowly to face the Vault Hunters, and their presence soothed the pain she felt, at least a little.

"You'll kill him, won't you?"

Roland hesitated for the smallest fraction of a second, then nodded mutely.

"Will you be okay?" he said.

"Yes… yes." Moxxi attempted to summon a smile, but quickly gave up.

"Let us know if you need anything, alright."

"I will." Moxxi turned back to the wreckage, and she heard the Vault Hunters returning to the crowd. She clutched their reassurances to her, and breathed steadily for several seconds before setting off slowly in the direction of T-Bone Junction.

* * *

It was several weeks later, and Moxxi had barely ventured from her flat above the bar in T-Bone Junction. News of the Underdome's destruction had spread like wildfire across Pandora, and the townspeople had not bothered her about it, although several of them had left small bunches of flowers and cards outside her door, of which she was incredibly grateful. Her pain and anger still struggled inside her, but they had dulled significantly now, being replaced by little more than a blank emptiness.

The only person she had spoken to since arriving back in T-Bone Junction was Roland, who had contacted her the day after to check that she'd arrived back safely. Just a few days ago, he had sent her a hastily typed message informing her that Hyperion had assaulted and destroyed New Haven, and that he and a group of survivors were heading east towards Sanctuary. In between these messages, and since the last one, she'd spent the bulk of her time staring at the ceiling, alone with her thoughts, which had already passed through the first three stages of grief and had currently settled on depression.

The communicator lying on the bedside table crackled into life sharply. Moxxi reached over and picked it up.

"Moxxi, you there?" came Roland's voice.

"Yeah. You made it to Sanctuary?"

"Yeah. Damn Bloodshots overran the city after Atlas pulled out. They weren't happy to leave, but we managed to convince them."

"Cool."

"Mmm… listen, you ought to join us. Scooter fixed up the fast travel here; if I send you the coordinates you should be able to come straight through."

"That's nice of you, Roland, but I'm alright here. Thanks for offering, though."

"Yeah, I know you can take care of yourself, but there's a rumour going around that Jack's planning to move on T-Bone Junction."

Moxxi sat up. "What?"

"Yeah… I mean, I don't think he wants to raze it like he did New Haven, but I also don't think he'll be nice and polite and not shoot you. Anyway, there's an old bar here that you could set up in. I know we all could use somewhere to relax over a drink, and I think it'll do you good to find something to occupy yourself.

Moxxi clicked her tongue, thinking hard. "All right… Maybe you're right."

"Thank you. I'll send you the coordinates now, but I need to get onto Zed… he's really not safe out in Fyrestone. I'm surprised Jack hasn't gone for Fyrestone already, actually…"

Roland hung up. Moxxi closed her communicator and stood up. She stretched, drawing her back up to its full length, then started to pack her things. The more she thought about it, the more she realised Roland was right – she really did need something to take her mind off everything. It had, after all, been rather a bad month so far.

* * *

 _A/N: Originally, this was going to be the last chapter. However, I realised part of the way through writing it that there might be a better way of ending, so there is one more chapter coming._


	5. Dear Friend

**5 – Dear Friend**

 _I am delighted._

 _(Timeline: Some three years after chapter four; during the events of the second game, after Roland's death but before Jack's death.)_

* * *

Night was well and truly falling, and the bar was deserted. Moxxi sank down into a chair, exhausted, and closed her eyes. It had been a very long day.

It was a long time since the destruction of the Underdome, and the pain in Moxxi's stomach had dulled somewhat. The Circles of Slaughter that she owned in several places on Pandora were a passable substitute, but for Moxxi, paying others to host events for her was simply not going to cut it forever. And it was boring in Sanctuary – safe, yes, but boring. Moxxi knew better than to try her luck away from the city, but there was still a part of her that yearned for the cheers of the crowd, the crack of the bullets.

And now Roland was gone, Roland, the most gentlemanly of them all, the face of the resistance, and some of the Sanctuarians were starting to lose hope. The atmosphere in the city had been subdued since his death, and it was not getting any brighter.

Moxxi heard soft footsteps, and someone sat down at the next table. She did not look up for several seconds, expecting it to be one of the Vault Hunters, back from a late-night mission. Eventually, she opened her eyes. Mordecai was sitting across from her, not looking at her, but looking instead at the table top.

"What do you want?" said Moxxi bluntly.

"To apologise," replied Mordecai after a pause. "I shouldn't have lost my temper at you the other day."

Moxxi seriously considered snapping at him, but something about his unusually subdued demeanour and the generally depressed atmosphere of the city made her stop.

"I understand," she replied eventually.

"Do you?" Mordecai said heavily.

"I think so. This war's hit us all hard. We've all had our turn to… lose something. And right now, it's your turn." On a regular day, speaking with anyone else, Moxxi would have given this last sentence a sultry inflection.

Mordecai nodded. "You were the first."

Moxxi also nodded, a lump forming in her throat. She, too, was looking at the table in front of her. The silence stretched for several more seconds.

"I'm… sorry about Bloodwing," Moxxi said eventually. For the first time, Mordecai raised his head and looked at her.

"Thank you."

They sank into silence again, before Moxxi sighed and let out a bitter laugh.

"Do you remember what you said to me the day we broke up? When I said… that you'd been replaced?"

"I remember," said Mordecai dully. The anger of this day had long since faded from his mind, but the memory was still fresh. "I told you it would end in tears."

"And how could we have known just how right you'd be?"

Mordecai chuckled. "Well, I wasn't going to say anything…"

Moxxi smiled – the first genuine smile she'd had in three years. They lapsed back into silence. Outside, the slow rumble of the city's engines held back the silence.

"This whole… 'sexy bartender' thing," said Mordecai after a while, forming the quotation marks with his hands half-heartedly. "Is it hard for you?"

Moxxi looked sideways at him. "Was that supposed to be innuendo?"

Mordecai chuckled again and shook his head. Moxxi sighed.

"Yes, it's hard. Not just because it's boring, but because it's not me. I want to be out there above the arena, listening to the fighting… the crowd… I had all that. It's hard to cover up the pain of the loss." She paused. "When all this is over, I want to go back to that. Rebuild my life."

"I think we all need to rebuild our lives when this is over," sighed Mordecai. Once again, they fell into silence, but it was becoming less awkward by the minute.

"What are you doing here, Mordecai?" asked Moxxi eventually.

"I told you. I came to -"

"Not here in the bar," interrupted Moxxi. "Here on this godforsaken planet. I mean, I was born here, I didn't have a choice. But you didn't have to ever set foot here. What made you?"

"Well… I guess it was the fact that ever since I was seventeen I've been searching for everything the universe owes me," replied Mordecai. "I guess I thought, maybe I'd find it here. The temptation of the Vault was… hard to resist."

"Lots of people said it wasn't real."

"Real or not, it was a big prize. Dangerous, and a lure for fools. And yeah, sometimes I wish I'd never set foot in Fyrestone. Then, maybe I'd have nothing to do with Hyperion, with Jack. Maybe Bloodwing'd still be here. And maybe I wouldn't be stuck here trying to defend a tiny craphole of a city from a psychopathic dictator and his massive space station. But… I am. And I suppose I have to make the most of it." He paused. "What about you? Never thought about leaving?"

Moxxi laughed bitterly again. "If you're born on Pandora, you gotta get damn lucky to leave. That costs money. Anyway, while I had the Underdome, I was happy here. And after… well, maybe I would have had the money to leave. But Hyperion controls all access to this planet; no way Jack was gonna let me quietly leave and rebuild somewhere else."

"No, I guess not. But what about when this is all over?"

Moxxi considered this for a second. "Well… I think Pandora'll always be my home. But maybe I'll try and travel a bit. Establish myself on some other planets. I hear that little planet over in the lower arm is kinda nice."

"Yeah, I've been there once. Might not be your kinda place; I don't think they like fighting rings much."

"They like alcohol and gambling, though, I bet. I'm sure I could get in with a local business. Besides, they don't have much to do with the rest of the galaxy, do they? I could do with a few weeks of peace and quiet, not hearing about Hyperion every few minutes."

"Yeah, yeah, I hear ya…" Mordecai sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes. Moxxi glanced at him. She had seen very little of him since he returned to the city semi-permanently almost a week ago, in the wake of Bloodwing's death. Close up, she noticed, his usually (admittedly) handsome face was gaunt and lined, and there were bags under his eyes. It was clear that the loss of Bloodwing and Roland within days of each other, as well as suddenly finding himself acting as commander of the Crimson Raiders, had all taken its toll on the hunter.

"Want a drink?" she said suddenly. She wasn't entirely sure why she said it, but guessed it was probably something to do with the vague feeling of sympathy she felt towards him. After all, he did seem to be enduring more than many of the others.

Mordecai looked sideways at her, and their eyes met briefly. "Sure."

Moxxi went over to the bar and poured two glasses of rakk ale, setting one down on Mordecai's table and one on her own. At first, they spoke very little, and just drank; Mordecai took long draughts with equally long delays between them, while Moxxi sipped slowly but consistently. The reasonably small amount of alcohol had a slow but noticeable effect on both of them; as they drank, they became more relaxed, and once the glasses were about half empty the conversation began to flow freely. They talked about all manner of things, telling stories, asking questions, until the glasses were empty.

The bar clock chimed eleven, and Mordecai sat forward with a groan. "Damn, I didn't realise it was that late… the Vault Hunters'll be coming up on the Nexus soon. I'd better get back to it."

"Alright," said Moxxi, yawning slightly. She drummed her fingers on the table as Mordecai stood up and stretched, making his way over to the door.

"Mordecai?"

"Hm?" The hunter paused in the doorway and turned.

"Are you sure you only came here to apologise to me?"

"Not really," replied Mordecai. "I think, with everything going on at the moment, I realised that we're all going to need all the help we can get. And I know we'll never be able to date again… there's too much pain there… but I think I just hoped we could be on good terms again."

Moxxi looked at him for a few seconds, then smiled. "I hope so."

* * *

 ** _A/N:_** _I think the point of this chapter in my mind was that while I don't think Mordecai and Moxxi would ever get back together, I can imagine them putting their grudge aside in the wake of Roland's death and becoming friends. Anyway, that's all for this story. I have one or two Zer0/Gaige one-shots lined up, and I've also got a longer Maya/Krieg story in development._


End file.
